> Still, most people cannot tell reality from fiction. If you just tell them it’s real, they’ll most likely believe it.
This goes for conversation too! My neighbour recently told me about a mutual neighbour who walks 200 miles per day working on his farm. When I explained that this is impossible he said "I'll have to disagree with you there"
That's a cultural issue that seems to have developed in the past years (decades? idk), where people take their own opinion (or what they think is their own opinion) as unchallengeable gospel.
In my opinion anyway, I'm gonna have to disagree with any counterpoints in advance.
This is partially the result of being taught that every opinion is valid. What was taught as a nicety (don’t dismiss other people’s opinions was the intention) has evolved into all opinions are equal.
If all opinions are equal, and we’ve reinforced that you can find anything to strengthen an opinion, then facts don’t actually matter.
But I don’t think it’s actually all that recent. History is full of people saying that facts or logic don’t matter. The Americas were “discovered” by such a phenomenon.
What's weird is the projection you get when you challenge someone's opinion in any way. All of a sudden, you're the arrogant one who thinks they're always right, no matter how diplomatic (or undeniably correct) about the issue you are. Or is that just me?
This goes for conversation too! My neighbour recently told me about a mutual neighbour who walks 200 miles per day working on his farm. When I explained that this is impossible he said "I'll have to disagree with you there"